ESMA welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Commission Consultation paper on Fintech: a more competitive and innovative financial sector (hereafter “the Consultation”).

Fintech and, technological innovation in general, have been the drivers of a number of developments in the financial sector in recent years. Indeed, new forms of services and businesses such as automated advice or crowdfunding have emerged. ESMA sees these developments as a positive evolution as long as they are aimed at improving consumer financial experience and facilitate financial inclusion. ESMA would also want to stress that it adheres to the core principles (technological neutrality, proportionality and market integrity) highlighted by the Commission and agrees that any EU policies aiming to ensure the financial sector takes advantage of cutting-edge technologies, while remaining sound and safe for investors, need to integrate these principles.

In this response, ESMA wishes to share with the Commission some reflections on a number of topics mentioned in the Consultation which appear relevant to ESMA:

The report provides an overview of the activities of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the accounting enforcers in the European Economic Area (EEA), hereafter ‘European enforcers’, when examining compliance of financial information provided by issuers with IFRS in 2016. It also provides an overview of the main activities performed at European level, quantitative information on enforcement activities in Europe as well as ESMA’s contribution to the development of the single rulebook in the area of financial reporting. In addition, it also outlines ESMA’s activities for 2017 in the area of corporate reporting following its Supervisory Convergence Work Programme.

ESMA is required to play an active role in building a common supervisory culture by promoting common supervisory approaches and practices among nationally appointed Sectoral Competent Authorities (‘SCAs’).

The purpose of this supervisory briefing is to provide guidance to SCAs in relation to the application of Articles 8c and 8d of the CRA Regulation and promote a common supervisory approach and enforcement of these Articles. In this regard, the Supervisory Briefing includes the following:

A Common Supervisory Approach as to which issuers and related third parties are covered by Article 8c and 8d; and,

A Standard Form for documentation in accordance with article 8d.

The common supervisory approach will assist SCAs as well as issuers and related third parties by clearly establishing who should be prioritised for supervision and enforcement under these Articles.

The Standard Form will assist SCAs by guaranteeing standardised and consistent data across different issuers and related third parties. It will also assist issuers and related third parties by providing clarity as to how they may meet their regulatory obligations under these Articles and simplify their internal processes by removing the need to develop in-house templates for documenting compliance under Article 8d.

The Supervisory Briefing will be published on ESMA’s website and on the websites of the nationally appointed SCAs.